Transformation – Sarah Layfield

*I first met Sarah when I was working in corporate. I worked with her mum, and Sarah was just 9 years old. Sarah had an array of different disabilities, which developed after her 6 month immunizations. Her little body couldn’t cope with the mercury.

At the time, Sarah couldn’t walk; she couldn’t talk and was afraid of most people. But even back then, when she trusted you, she gave out the best hugs! Her mum Eron helped Sarah learn to walk, learn to ride an adapted bike and even taught her to horse ride. But there were still so many things that Sarah couldn’t do, and would never be able to do; or so people thought. Today Sarah is 20 years old, and one of my Nutrition & Applied Muscle Testing Clients. The changes we have seen in Sarah, in a ridiculously small space of time are beyond words. When Eron messaged me with some of the changes, I couldn’t help but break down in tears. I am truly honored to be part of Sarah’s life and witness her journey. There is nothing more fulfilling than seeing people succeed.

It’s about the freedom people win. Success comes in all shapes and sizes. Readers, this is not a weight loss story. It’s not a weight gain story. It’s not even about muscles or fitness. It’s about a young woman’s new found freedom. I cannot wait to see what else we see emerge from this little lady’s body and mind, with the help of good nutrition and natural supplementation. I am so super proud of Sarah, and grateful to her mum Eron for trusting me and having faith in my advice, so that we can work together at Unleashing the Best Version of Sarah. Eron has worked extremely hard over the years, to help her daughter have quality of life. Eron shares their story now:

As a younger child Sarah was a very typical autistic child – very withdrawn and stuck in her own world, she would scream for food but then scream because she couldn’t handle the feel of food in her mouth. What food we could get into her was dairy and gluten based (custard, milk, mushy Weet-bix). Sarah is very sensitive to textures and at this time would only eat pureed foods. She would bash her head into walls, floor, doors etc. There was no communication and she was full time incontinent.

When Sarah was about 14yrs old, I heard about and started an elimination diet with her and we discovered a severe reaction to dairy. After removing dairy she was so happy and more alert than she had ever been at that stage, when it was reintroduced her behavior was worse than it had been for a long time, so much so we did not complete the ‘challenge’ and removed dairy after just 3 days of the 7. She started on soy milk and about 6 months later she started vomiting regularly. We spent some time in crisis management dealing with, at times, severe vomiting and a lot of infections not realizing what was causing it, and doctors kept diagnosing Gastro every time, even though she never had bowel issues or temperatures.

At 16 we removed gluten for a few months to see if it made any difference. Sarah successfully became day time toilet trained!! Huge improvement and started eating more lumpy foods. At 18 we removed soy from Sarah’s diet and her vomiting disappeared; it returned each time she consumed any soy with her reaction coming faster; she now vomits within hours of contamination.

I attended a workshop with Terri in June this year, partly for me and partly for Sarah’s benefit. WOW!! So much information to take in about optimizing nutrition, and the underlying effects of some foods. Soon after, I booked us both in to see Terri for a private consult.

When we saw Terri, Sarah was already off dairy, gluten and soy. We are now stricter with removing those foods and have added sugar and corn to that list. We have ‘tweaked’ Sarah’s diet to ensure optimal nutritional value from what she does eat, adding more good fats, changing oils we use and using different brands where possible (fresher, less supermarket mass produced foods). We have also added supplements to Sarah’s day – vitamin B12, probiotics, cod liver oil and a metal detox. [Sarah has a high very high metal toxins reading, possibly linked to the immunization she reacted to all those years ago.]

The changes for Sarah have been amazing and fast! Before these changes she was very inconsistent with her moods, still most days she was ‘zoning out’ and unresponsive off and on throughout the day, her walking was unsteady with lots of falls.

On day 14 that changed. Sarah had a day that she was happier than she has ever been for a full day and it was noticed by a lot of people. She was very happily vocal – laughing, ‘chatting’.

Over the following weeks this new ‘Happy Sarah’ consistently continued. Everywhere we went people who know her would comment how ‘chatty’ she is, how noisy she is, how alert and attentive she is. Sarah’s vocalizations are getting clearer and strangers are recognizing her ‘words’ (Hi, dog, duck, who’s there?) She has new sounds now too.

Sarah has not had a fall since the first couple of days of these changes. Sarah is sleeping better, waking up easier and happier. It’s like she is seeing things that she didn’t see before, she is touching objects with purpose, and she is getting more purposeful hand movements.

Sarah has had one throat infection during these changes and although it hit her hard for 24 hours she recovered much better and quicker than ever.

The best change has been – she is off doctor prescribed medication and only taking natural supplements.

Her changes are amazing, although she does need to learn her ‘volume control’ again! lol

It makes all the work worthwhile when I’m constantly getting comments like -‘what have you done? She is so happy!’ I look forward to and am very motivated to keep working out the right balance for Sarah and seeing how far she can go.

[What would you say to someone wanting to consult with Terrific Fitness?] Go for it, you won’t be sorry. The Applied Muscle Testing (AMT) is something I used to think was one of those gimmicks but I trust Terri and thought I would give it a try and see what she said. If I didn’t see the results for myself I would not have believed it. It has helped tweak Sarah’s plan which is showing amazing results.” – Eron Layfield

Update from Eron on Sarah’s progress from 31st October 2015

“Thought I would give you another Sarah update!

(For those who don’t know my princess: Sarah is 21 and labelled with cerebral palsy, autism, intellectual disability, atypical Rett syndrome. I was regularly told during Sarah’s time in school that she had minimal capacity to learn. We have made huge diet changes and added some supplements).

It’s been about 12 months, maybe a bit more, since we made the last set of changes. Sarah started a communication program 6 months ago to learn how to use her communication device.

In this time here is a list of things we have learnt about Sarah’s capabilities and her skills that have improved:

– Sarah can spell, she can spell the entire list of 100 most common words, names, numbers, places, things, almost everything. She can spell with minimal errors. – Sarah can do math! Not just basic addition and subtraction but multiplication and division! I had no idea she had even been exposed to multiplication besides a chart on the back of a friends toilet door a handful of times! – Sarah’s walking is SO much better!!! So much so a friend at church (who happens to be a Physio) was asking what treatment/exercises she had been doing! We hardly use her wheelchair these days and when we do it’s more for her safety from other people (crowded environments etc). She rarely needs to hold my arm when walking. – Sarah’s physical ability over all is changing for the better! Where she used to stand stiff upright, she now does more rocking and bending over to touch things. – Sarah is so much more engaged in her environment. She is getting so cheeky! Touching everything, I mean EVERYTHING!!! To the point it’s almost frustrating! Lol . She is interacting with people so much better. People are understanding her better and she understands better. – Sarah is communicating better. Even though she doesn’t use her device to communicate much she is definitely getting her point across so much better than she used to. She is nodding and shaking her head to say yes and no much more consistently and correctly!